Jim Waddick wrote,
Arum- various species are emerging now and I am curious why
>these are not more widely grown
I think many gardeners avoid them because A. italicum is viewed (at least
here in the Pacific Northwest) as a trash plant. I like it, though, and
grow several cultivars -- but I have a very big garden with fast-draining
soil, which keeps it under control by drying it out more than it
appreciates in summer.
One weedy species can condemn an entire genus in the minds of unadventurous
gardeners. Ornithogalum and Muscari are good examples (though the latter
has more than one weedy member). Some gardeners here feel this way about
Anemone nemorosa, which Jim praised, but I can't see why: it's so little it
can't possibly outcompete anything it might grow near.
Jim went on,
> Aril-bred and oncocyclus iris are putting up flowering stems
>now as Junos in the same beds are fading away. Again I don't know
>why these desert iris species and numerous hybrids are not more
>widely grown.
I think (a) they are hard to get and expensive, and (b) as Jim noted they
require special care, which here would include overhead protection in
winter and constant spraying to quell the leaf pathogens to which they are
very susceptible in mild, wet weather. I grow a few, but only in the bulb
frame.
Jane McGary
Northwestern Oregon, USA